


Repeatedly Forgotten Papers

by orphan_account



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AU, Author!Kiyoshi, M/M, chef!kagami, editor!Kuroko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 06:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5529671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kagami falls head over heels for an editor. An editor for his particularly forgetful neighbour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repeatedly Forgotten Papers

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic was originally written for this year's KNB Secret Santa by DailyKiseki for stop-sign-sei on tumblr! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

Although he still had another hour before he had to leave for work, Kagami was ready to go, with an ulterior motive in mind of course. He donned his uniform, a black double breasted shirt and dark trousers. One thing to be thankful for; restaurants these days had ditched the white toques. He adjusts the collar in the mirror, making sure his jacket sits properly on his shoulders and emphasises his built torso, while the dark colours enhanced his sun-kissed skin.

It was a Tuesday evening. Kagami had lost track of the time, attempting to come across as cool, calm and collected. Regardless, he could see from a quick glance through the window to see that the sun was setting, washing the skies with a hue of amber that was fading to navy. He’s awaiting a visitor. _Eagerly_ awaiting a visitor.

The doorbell rings, the hollow chiming resonates through his roomy apartment and through awaiting ears, prompting a barrage of worries with it. Butterflies weren’t churning in his stomach, but rather, it was the words that he had rehearsed, time and time again that were gathering and making him lurch. Kagami bit his lip as his eyes danced to every corner. His breathing and heartbeat began to rise and fall irrationally, filling his ears with white noise.

He forces himself to calm down. He doesn’t want to be a sweating mess. Glancing over the apartment, he inspects the living room and hallway as he goes to answer the door. The open front door of his apartment gives an insight to his hallway and part of his living room, so he makes sure to spend an _entire 10 minutes_ checking over that select area to make sure he doesn’t come across as lazy in the slightest before answering.

Taking one last deep breath, Kagami opens the door. Wide eyes falter slightly when he doesn’t see the lithe frame he was expecting at this time, but rather Kiyoshi’s large frame. Kiyoshi gives a hearty grin as he usually does, so for a split second, Kagami wonders if he noticed.

“Kagami-kun! I was hoping you were in!” He chirps in. Kiyoshi’s fruitful voice is still pleasant to listen to, even if it isn’t the modulated tone he was expecting. “Do you have those feedback sheets that Kuroko left here? He said that I could pick them up from you.” His lips curl in a bashful admittance to the fact that he left Kuroko hanging. Again.

Kagami’s gaze narrows at him, not surprised in the slightest, but also wondering how he, a chef from a restaurant in the inner city, got roped into the antics of the friendly author next door. He fetches the papers on one of the end tables in the living room and hands it over. “Maybe you should set a reminder on your phone or something?” Kagami suggests. Kiyoshi is a smart man, and Kagami knows that if **_he’s_** the voice of reason in this situation, _something has gone wrong._

“I should, maybe next time I meet Kuroko-kun.” He says.

“Or when _I_ next meet Kuroko….” Kagami murmurs under his breath, but Kiyoshi still hears and laughs.

“Fine, when **_you_** next meet Kuroko then. We can go for lunch to make up for it.” Kiyoshi decides. “My treat.”

Kagami grins. “Sure.” He says as Kiyoshi begins to walk back to his own flat. “It better not be at my own damn restaurant!”

He shuts the door and fetches his coat. He might as well go to work early. While pleased to see Kiyoshi, he is also a little disappointed as he didn’t get to see Kuroko. As usual, the words are forming at the tip of his tongue, but he doesn’t have the heart to voice them out loud.

Kuroko, Kiyoshi’s editor. Kagami has a crush on Kiyoshi’s editor.

* * *

The editor in question visits the next week. It’s a Thursday morning, not too early for people with a 9 to 5 job, but Kagami had just come home from a late night shift. Groaning to himself, he forced himself to get out of bed to force whoever it was to _**just stop knocking on the fucking door.**_

He trudges out of his room. It’s colder than the comforting warmth of his bed. He’s cold in his pyjama bottoms and T-shirt, but can’t be bothered to go back for a hoodie. Whoever it is, is still knocking at the door at a pace like an alarm clock’s beeping. He puts up with the sensation of his skin tightening as goosebumps form, and continues his clumsy, treacherous journey to the front door.

He is almost leaps from his spot when he opens the door and sees large blue eyes gazing up at him. If he was less sleep deprived he would remember that Kuroko has a habit of doing that. Rather than the polite method of knocking 3 times and waiting, Kuroko would continue until either they opened the door, or realised they weren’t home. It seemed that he was fed up of waiting.

“Good morning Kagami-kun. I hope I didn’t disturb your sleeping.” Kuroko bows. His face hasn’t faltered from Kagami’s appearance, but his eyes do show mirth in them.

“You _know_ you did.” Kagami almost sneers, all thoughts of impressing his crush out of the window.

“Is that so. I apologise.” He replies. Kagami lets Kuroko in, he slips off his sneakers and takes off his jacket. Kagami walks past a mirror on the way to the living room and wants to kick himself. His eyes are pink, a clear sign of sleep deprivation, and he’s got a mild case of bed head. He looks tired and murderous, not the best impression.

“Kiyoshi-san got the time wrong. He said he’ll try to get back as soon as his physio is finished.” Kuroko explains. Kagami wonders if Kiyoshi did try to heed to his advice after all, or if he’s doing it on purpose at this point. His stomach grumbles and roars, stopping him from debating it any further.

Kuroko laughs and tries to disguise it with a cough. “Looks like I gotta make breakfast, are you sticking around?” Kagami asks as he fetches an apron and proceeds to rummage through the fridge, reeling in mild embarrassment.

Kuroko says nothing and just nods. He follows Kagami into the kitchen, and sits on a stool at the counter island to watch. Kagami isn’t used to cooking for an audience, but doesn’t want to kick Kuroko out. Having him there is a nice touch.

Kuroko watches the chef at work, currently grilling sausages and bacon. While he never considered aprons as a fashion accessory, the navy fabric suits him _incredibly_ well. He did enjoy the sight of Kagami in his chef’s uniform, but he can’t help but find this domestic version of Kagami his favourite, tired eyes, bed head and all. Kuroko forces himself to reign in his wild imagination once he gets to the point of daydreaming about what it would be like to wake up beside the sleeping redhead, encased in his strong arms.

“Kuroko, breakfas-“ Kagami says, glancing over his shoulder to see Kuroko gazing at him. He feels stuck in his wistful gaze, his heart halts momentarily, snapping him out of it. “A-are you going to eat or not?” Kagami asks, trying to hide how much his heart is thumping against his ribcage. Kuroko realises that he’s been caught staring, and stiffens. He nods to and tries to relax his currently wild pulse.Neither of them speak of it, but it’s clear that they don’t want to forget those few moments of gazing.

Kagami heads to the dining room and Kuroko follows. Well, it’s not quite a dining room, and more like a mahogany dining table in the corner of the living room. The upside of it is that the table is beside the patio doors leading to the balcony.

One thing that plagues Kuroko’s mind is how much food Kagami has managed to make. He’s sat down waiting for Kagami, who’s gone back to the kitchen to make a second trip to bring the rest of the food. Kagami is a very well built man, so it’s not farfetched for him to eat more than others. He wonders if Kagami’s grossly overestimated his appetite, or if he just has a black hole for a stomach. He’s pretty sure Kagami’s cooked two whole packs of sausages, and he doesn’t even want to know how many eggs went into the rolled omelettes Kagami made. At least there’s only a moderate portion of white rice and miso soup. Even if those are beside an abundance of toast.

Although he’s trying to appear at ease and nonchalant about the situation, Kagami’s still hoping to impress Kuroko, almost forgetting that he’s a chef. Kagami watches with a fretful gaze as Kuroko takes his first bite of the omelette. Worry soon shifts to pride as Kuroko’s deadpan expression shifts as well. His eyes widen and his cheeks blossom as the flavour bursts in his mouth.

“… It’s delicious.” Kuroko mutters. “I can see why you’re a chef.” He comments with a reticent smile. Kagami mutters a “Thanks” under his breath as he scratches the back of his neck, before returning to his breakfast in silence as Kuroko is too cute for words.

Kuroko then finds out that Kagami indeed has a black hole for a stomach, as he demolishes every scrap.

* * *

With  a newfound sense of determination Kagami approaches Kiyoshi’s front door and knocks. Even after all the times Kuroko had invited himself into Kagami’s apartment, they’d never gotten round to swapping phone numbers. Kagami would forget to ask every time, and Kuroko had never asked, so he began to think that he wasn’t interested and was simply passing time.

Kiyoshi’s response is quicker than Kagami expected, so the door opens as Kagami is planning his excuses and reasoning.

“Kagami? What brings you here?” Kiyoshi asks, thick eyebrows knitting together. A lump forms in Kagami’s throat, he splutters to clear it.

“K-Kiyoshi-san, I need Kuroko’s phone number.” He begins. He’s still awful at using honorifics. It sounds strange to him, and probably sounds strange to Kiyoshi too.

“Is that so?” His eyebrows furrow further for a split second and then relax.” Sure, hand me your phone.” He says, fishing out his own phone from his pocket. Kagami unlocks his phone and hands it to him.

“S-So, how’s your book going?” Kagami asks while Kiyoshi begins to type in Kuroko’s number. Kuroko didn’t talk too much about Kiyoshi when he was around. Sometimes he might talk about his skill as a non fiction author, and sometimes he might make the odd comment about his unreliability.

When he thought about it, he wondered why Kuroko didn’t just stick to emails rather than insisting on meeting face to face. Then again, he didn’t know anything about publishing, so perhaps there’s something that he needed to be there for. The idea of suggesting that made him uneasy, when he considered how Kuroko wouldn’t have a reason to keep showing up.

“Kuroko made me scrap a couple of chapters and rewrite them, so it’ll take a little while longer. Everything else is going pretty good.” Kiyoshi smiled to himself as he gave Kagami his phone back. Kagami glazed over his phone screen, in particular the new contact, ‘Kuroko Tetsuya’. “That reminds me, why do you need his phone? Did he leave something?” Kiyoshi asked.

Kagami froze and stammered. Then he nods. “Y-Yeah, he did.” He answers and hopes Kiyoshi won’t ask anymore questions.

“Really? That’s pretty weird, I’ve known Kuroko for a while and he almost never forgets.”

“I-Is that so?” He finds himself replying. Kiyoshi is a kind man, with a warm and assuring smile that makes you want to trust him. Yet at this moment, he’s striking panic in Kagami’s chest, as if his every word and action up until now is under scrutiny.

Kiyoshi’ relaxes his expression. There’s a twinkle in his eyes as his lips curl, and Kagami can almost swear that Kiyoshi’s flashing him a knowing grin. “Anyways, I’ll see you around, good luck!” He chirps before Kagami slinks back to his own apartment.

He let out an audible groan the moment he was inside. Blushing wouldn’t have been a problem, currently, Kagami was as red as a beetroot and radiating heat like a hot pan. He couldn’t be seeing things. It was clear that Kiyoshi had realised a lot more than Kagami assumed he did.

* * *

It takes a few more days before Kagami texts Kuroko for the first. He agonised over what to say time and time again, before shoving his phone back in his pocket and promising to come back to it later, only to do the exact opposite. Despite taking so much time to consider all the ‘laid back’ and ‘cool’ first texts he could have sent, he resorted to sending a basic introduction text and never looking at it again. He felt like a stereotypical schoolgirl trying to text her crush.

Kuroko responded in the same, formal and nonchalant way he spoke in texts messages. But it turned out to be worth the mild embarrassment whenever he spoke to Kiyoshi as Kuroko. He wouldn’t turn up unsolicited anymore, at least now he would give notice before coming to visit. The two have grown used to each other’s company as Kuroko frequents more and more, usually hungry as whatever Kagami makes is better than what he can muster. Kagami always gives in simply because of that adorable face he makes every time he tries Kagami’s cooking. According to Kuroko, he’s only an average cook at best, but it still doesn’t quell his curiosity.

Between the times Kuroko spends looking at Kagami, he’s admiring his home. It’s large and neat, he was expecting someone like Kagami to be _far_ messier. His hallway is adorned with picture frames, some are paintings, and others, the ones that catch Kuroko’s eye, are the framed photos of his high school and middle school days.

“Kagami, did you play basketball as a child?” Kuroko asked one day as Kagami let him in yet again. At this point, Kagami’s grown so used to Kuroko that the powerful storms of nerves and anxiety have calmed to tranquil waves with the odd exception.

“Yeah, why?” He walks back to where Kuroko’s standing, to find that he was gazing at a picture of him beside Tatsuya, holding a basketball while Alex had her arms slung across both of their shoulders. Kagami smiled to himself, the earnest smile making Kuroko’s heart flutter. “That’s my brother, Tatsuya, and my coach Alex in America. It was thanks to him that I learnt to play.”

“I actually used to play basketball too.” Kuroko murmurs, and Kagami immediately draws back in surprise.

“ _Really_?!” Kagami asks in astonishment, and Kuroko is surprised to see that Kagami’s eyes have lit up like a child’s. The sight of a 6 foot tall, well built man acting like a kid in a candy shop is strangely endearing.

“But I wasn’t the best, at least not in the traditional sense.” Kuroko disclaims, not wanting to bring up Kagami’s hopes like he had with a friend once in middle school. On top of that it was clear to see the difference in skill would most likely be in Kagami’s favour simply because of his athleticism. While he wanted to see the man play, he didn’t want to risk his own pride.

“It’s cool, I mean I was pretty good back then.” Kagami states. He ruffles Kuroko’s hair before returning to the living room, and so that he can’t see that his face is burning. Kuroko almost swears that he can hear his own heartbeat. He sighs to himself, forcing himself to calm down and inwardly groaning over Kagami’s oblivion.

By the time Kuroko leaves the hallway, Kagami has gone back to watching TV. Kuroko decides that he might as well sit at Kagami’s dining table and go over some of Kiyoshi’s re-drafts. He does his best to block out the commentary from the NBA tape he’s watching, as he knows he’d probably get distracted and wind up right beside Kagami, work forgotten on a table.

He fishes out his trusty red pen, and begins reading through everything he’s finished so far. Kuroko always thought that Kiyoshi could sometimes get off track, and when he didn’t do that, he wrote fantastic books. It was just pulling in the reins every now and then.

“That reminds me, Murasakibara-kun opened a patisserie the other day.” Kuroko murmurs to himself as he taps the back of his pen against the table.

“Huh?” Kagami asks, turning his head and watching Kuroko from the sofa.

“What’s your work schedule again?” Kuroko asks Kagami.

Kagami responds with a concise answer. “7PM onwards.” He keeps looking back at Kuroko, expecting him to continue, yet says nothing. Neither of them say anything, and the TV is the only thing keeping the room from silence.

Kuroko wants to speak, but fears the opportunity has passed. The atmosphere has grown thick and makes it hard to talk. He tries to keep his face from falling and instead watches the game that’s been blaring on the TV.

Kagami’s interest seems to be divided. Every now and then, he begins to turn his head towards Kuroko’s direction, but then turns away before making eye contact. His eyebrows would furrow and his lips would settle into a firm line before he did so. Perhaps he wanted Kuroko to invite him out. It became clear to Kuroko that his subtlety wasn’t going to suffice any longer.

Kuroko looks through the patio doors. The sun is setting, giving him an excuse that will suffice. “Kagami-kun, I should get going, it’s getting dark.” He announces as he stands up. Kagami winces as the wooden chair is pushed back, making it screech against the flooring. “Before I go, Kagami-kun, would you like to visit that patisserie I was talking about?”

Kagami’s eyes widen whenever he’s surprised or lost for words. His lips part, as if he wants to respond but has no idea what to say. “S-Sure.” He finally speaks. “But I’m not actually that big on sweets.” He admits.

“If that’s the case then it would be unfair to make you go.” Kagami looks like he’s about to interject before Kuroko resumes. “How about the movies? I heard that there’s an adaptation of a book I read a while ago.”

“Uhh, s-sure. Should I text you?” Kagami asks, his eyes are still wide in disbelief and his lips are parted. He looks like he’s in a daze.

“I would appreciate it. I’ll let myself out.” Kuroko says as he throws on his light grey scarf, smiling to himself as he left.

The door closes. In a daze Kagami sits back down in his sofa and picks up the remote. He’s about to return to what he was doing prior, until realisation crashes into him and forces him to snap out of whatever trance he was in. Kuroko, the editor he’s had a crush on for a while, just asked him out on a date.

* * *

For once, Kagami had a Saturday off, so that was the day they eventually agreed to. Kuroko still felt a little embarrassed about his brazen actions, but it was worth it to see the look on Kagami’s face.

After he had taken a shower, Kuroko had scanned his wardrobe and changed into dark blue jeans and a blue and white striped shirt.

He then proceeded to change out of that, it didn’t feel right, and it couldn’t hurt to dress up a bit more. After going through his T-shirts, jumpers and cardigans one-by-one, he eventually decided on a pair of dark blue chinos and a grey sweater. He knows from experience that there isn’t much he can do to his hair other than taming his unruly bed head, so he makes sure that nobody will be making any Super-Saiyan jokes and flattens down any perky sections.

The doorbell rings at the most convenient time. Kagami waits at the other side, trying to keep his breathing steady. It seems to work as when Kuroko answers the door, he doesn’t look like his palms are beginning to feel slick.

“Hello, Kagami-kun, you look nice today.” Kuroko says, already wearing his coat. Kagami’s wrapped up in a brown coat and a red plaid scarf. He’s wearing those tight black jeans that Alex made him buy, as “They made his legs look perfect.”

“T-Thanks, so do you.” Kagami says, looking away towards the top of the doorframe. “Are you ready to go?”

Kuroko nods and locks the door beside him. “T-That reminds me, the movie, I didn’t realise it was from a book originally.” Kagami comments, index finger grazing over his chin as they walk towards the stairs.

“It’s not really. I just needed an excuse to ask you out.” Kuroko states and can hear Kagami’s breath hitch. “Please forgive me, is that an issue?” He asks, flashing Kagami a sweet smile that makes the slight flush on his cheeks burn scarlet.

“N-no. Hurry up or we’ll miss the movie.” Kagami retorts, shoving his hands in his pockets. Kuroko chuckles under his breath and tries to walk faster to keep up with Kagami’s long legs.


End file.
